After an intriguing two-event Hawaiian season to start the revamped World Surf League championship tour, one thing is crystal clear: Australia has a lot of work to do.
In the men’s division only Straddie’s Ethan Ewing makes the top 10 (at number six) while the women fare slightly better with Tyler Wright at six and Sunnie Coast’s Isabella Nichols at 10 alongside rookies, India Robinson and Molly Picklum. At the moment none of our surfers make the cut of five for the championship finals series in California in September. But, of course, there is a lot of water to flow around the points between now and then.
The next event, starting next week at Supertubos, Portugal, has been rescheduled from early autumn to late winter when anything can happen in the unruly Atlantic, but there is likely to be a lot of powerful water moving around just as there was at Pipeline and Sunset when the rookie and the wildcard came out on top over seasoned veterans and big wave specialists, so who knows?
The Australians are more likely to be pinning their finals hopes on April’s Australian tour, with events at Margaret River and Bells Beach.
But the Australian season is likely to represent a do-or-die effort for many of our best surfers because the WSL has reintroduced the mid-year cut-off which will see men ranked below 22 and women below 10 relegated to the re-qualifying Challenger Series, or alternatively, deciding it’s time to hang up the leg rope. The cut will apply after the Margaret River event.
Australian men currently below the cut line include last year’s rookie sensation Morgan Cibilic and veterans Ryan Callinan and Owen Wright. In the women’s division both of Australia’s greatest, Sally Fitzgibbons and seven-times world champion Steph Gilmore are well below the line, as is WA charger Bronte Macaulay. So much work to be done, so little time.
But let’s get back to Hawaii, where the season began with the second coming of the GOAT, Kelly Slater, to win his eighth Pipeline title a few days before his 50th birthday, scuttling a few of those annoyingly talented rookies and wildcards along the way. At the Hurley Pro at Sunset Beach, however, the GOAT might have started out with the yellow jersey and a lot of hype about his prospects for a 12th world title, but he struggled through two rounds before being taken out in the most bizarre circumstances in the third.
With overlapping heats in the water, Slater was already having difficulty finding a wave in the non-priority heat against South Africa’s Matthew McGillivray when a medium-sized runner came his way. The champ was midway through his bottom turn when his close friend John John Florence, who was having his own difficulties in the priority heat, turned and took off in the white water, landing on his feet behind Slater, who crossed Florence’s line with a cutback and then exited as fast as he could, which wasn’t fast enough for the judges.
Technically speaking, in the overlapping heats system, the two surfers in the priority heat have right of way over surfers in the next heat under any circumstances, and crossing the priority surfer’s line on the wave is judged harshly with the competitor’s second score eliminated.
“I don’t respect this place (Sunset) and it doesn’t respect me,” Kelly harrumphed in the water, but by the time he fronted the cameras on the beach he was taking it philosophically. His ranking has now slipped to five, but, freshly vaccinated, he has announced he’ll surf in Portugal and Australia and aim to make the final series in September.
But the drama of the GOAT’s rise and fall on the North Shore was overshadowed by an incredible changing of the guard. (I know, how often have we heard that, but the rookies and wildcards weren’t just going through the paces, they were dominating.) In the women’s, Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy finished at the top of the rankings after a faultless display at Sunset, while Hawaiian Pipeline wildcard winner Moana Jones Wong did enough there to see here in third spot.
In the men’s it was all about Hawaiian rookie Seth Moniz and wildcard Barron Mamiya, beach mates on the North Shore who surfed with flair and maturity. While Seth was simply outsurfed by Slater in the Pipe final, he showed flashes of brilliance at both events. An emotional Mamiya couldn’t quite believe that, having failed to make the qualifying cut at the end of last year, he was now wearing the yellow jersey into Portugal after a crushing victory over Kanoa Igarashi in the Sunset final.
So, what a season in Hawaii! It kept me on the couch in the early mornings when I should have been out on the points practising for the codgers’ event at the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
FOOTNOTE: The Noosa Festival of Surfing looks like being a biggie, with heaps of competitors from all over the country and a lot of celebrity guests. Noosa Today will have a full rundown next week.
